Blog - Graceful Order

Buddy Box Subscription for Kids

October 19, 2015 · by Maria · Leave a Comment

I want to let you in to something about blogging. When you have been blogging for a while, you get the opportunity to work with some pretty cool brands. Of course there are some that you can’t genuinely recommend to your readers, so you pass. Others are just out of your scope, so you pass. When I was presented with the opportunity to partner with Buddy Box, I thought “this really has nothing to do with organization, decorating, or entertaining but I love this concept and want to share it with my readers.” So I decided to make an exception and I hope that you will love this concept as much as we do.

It’s not often that I share about my faith on Graceful Order because the focus of this blog is organizing, decorating and entertaining at home. In my home our faith is part of the fabric of our family and whenever I learn about companies like Buddy Box, I want to give them a try and if I like it, I want to share it with the world. You guys are part of my world!

So what is this box that merited this looong intro? You know how subscription boxes are really popular? We can get makeup or food that gets delivered to our door monthly, and we get super excited to see what goodies we are getting this month. This box tailored to kids and includes new products and themes every month, that help to build their faith. I think it’s the coolest concept!

So look at the pictures of my 4 year old as he received this month’s Buddy Box. I don’t know if it’s because he is my kid but when I look at these pictures I crack up! That kid is expressive!

I wanted to photograph the whole process and you can imagine how hard that was with this little one wanting to start playing with everything! It was a joy to watch him pull out every single item.

Here are most of the items that came in the box, although they didn’t all fit in the picture. You get the idea…it’s a lot.

Here he is “reading” the explanation to all the items/games included in the box. It bears mentioning that the book was upside down, yet he pretended to read it. Haha.

Something that took me by surprise is how much my 11 year old liked the box! He is very artistic and loves anything that allows him to get creative. He also loves to help his little brother. Them working on the activities together was not something I anticipated, but I was so happy to see.

And next came out the slime. I said “Gross!”, they said “Cool!”.

I can’t even tell you how long they played with the slime. They loved it. Can these pictures lie?

Love that kid!

You may notice that there a lot of bat items in the box. Appropriately so, the theme this month was based around fear. The words “Fear not” were the reoccurring message in every game. The box brought this little pillow that they were able to decorate with a fabric marker that was included, reminding my little one to “fear not”. Clearly the side of the pillow that is in the picture below was courtesy of my oldest. He is such a great big brother!

So he loves his Buddy Box! I love it because it’s a way for him to experience the Bible at his level — and that includes chatty teeth! I want my boys to know that God’s love is relevant, real, and even fun!

If you want to check out the Buddy Box for yourself, I encourage you to take advantage of the following offer:

Try Buddy Box for $15! You can try Buddy Box for $15, this promotion can be used on any length of subscription and will apply a $12.99 discount on the order. Use Promo Code: BUDDYBOX by October 23rd

Until next time! Let’s all adopt that stance and FEAR NOT.

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Lifetree, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #growkidsfaith http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

Laundry Room Organization Ideas

October 13, 2015 · by Maria · 2 Comments

Let’s talk laundry rooms — organized laundry rooms that make you want to gather everyone’s basket and get to work. You know I tend to exaggerate but seriously, these laundry rooms that I am about to share with you are awesome!

I recently shared my laundry closet post with my Hometalk community and they asked me if I would be willing to gather some of my favorite laundry rooms, belonging to fellow bloggers. I would never say no to someone asking me to look at pretty things so I was happy to put together a board of some of my favorite laundry room ideas.

If you missed my post about my laundry room, you can read it here.

It’s a tiny space but there is function and practicality in every corner.

And check out this amazing laundry room from Rambling Renovators! That glass tile…swoon! It is an amazing before and after transformation so you may want to check it out.

To see the rest of the laundry rooms that I chose (17 in total) click on my Hometalk board , that I have put together just for you.

Also, if you are not already familiar with Hometalk, they are an online community of people that share ideas about home improvement, gardening and DIY projects. I love that I can clip (kind of like pinning) pictures onto boards and later reference my favorite projects. That is exactly what I did with the board that I am sharing with you today.

Enjoy, my fellow organization-obssessd friends! (Because I have no laundry-obsessed friends)

xo,

Maria

Go Batty Party

October 12, 2015 · by Maria · 1 Comment

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SpooktacularSnacks #CollectiveBias #Ad #Sponsored #GetYourBettyOn

You will notice that Graceful Order during the holidays is a little less about organizing the home, and a lot more about entertaining in the home. After all, what’s the point of having all our platters organized if they never peek out of the drawer?

My kids love to have little parties for every and any occasion and Halloween is no exception. On Halloween night, I set up a large table with treats and I will also have butternut squash soup cooking on the stove. The adults and kids in our family know that they are welcome to stop by, grab a bite and walk around the neighborhood getting treats with the boys. My boys enjoy the setup and they take turns between getting candy from our neighbors and giving out candy to the little ones that knock on our door. Last year we had over 100 kids stop by our home! I know this because I make the little treat bags ahead of time and we ran out (I had made 100). Other years it’s less, but we have to be prepared because I hate to turn down a swarm of cute princesses, superheroes and astronauts!

Halloween is definitely fun, but also hectic — there is no way to get around that. This is the time to employ as many shortcuts as possible and give kids and adults what they want — silly-looking sweet treats! I headed to Target to find some decorations for my party (you know you can count on Target for that!) and these fun combo packages of PEEPS® Brand Marshmallow that are available exclusively at Target. I also picked up a few Betty Crocker™ favorites to add to my party.

Many of the decorations I found in the Target dollar section, and the products I used were found in the baking and Halloween isles, seen below.

I followed package instructions for most of the items but I embellished the Yellow cake in the following recipe, by using a few bananas that were past their prime.

Banana Bread Cupcakes

Prep time 10 minutes / Cook Time 15-20 minutes / Servings 24 cupcakes

List of Ingredients

1 Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix

1/3 Cup of Vegetable Oil

3 Eggs

3 Ripe Bananas

Optional: Add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees and grease the pan that you will be using. I was using liners in my cupcake pan.

Mash the bananas using a fork.

Combine the bananas and the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and beat using a mixer (or vigorously by hand).

Pour into the cupcake pan. It was about 3 tablespoons per cupcake liner.

Bake for about 15 minutes and take a peek. If you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean, they are done. Otherwise, allow them to bake for a few more minutes.

Allow them to cool completely before icing.

I iced these cupcakes with different flavors. One was a vanilla icing topped with yellow sprinkles. The other was simply some hazelnut spread mixed with whipped topping (I totally licked the spoon). The finishing touch were these cute little PEEPS peeking out of each cupcake! My boys loved these!

A good idea for displaying cupcakes is carefully stacking pedestals to create a little height in your party table. Also, nestle decorations around your cupcakes.

As far as the decor, I like to keep it cute but not scary because I don’t want to scare the little ones and by little ones I mean me. I chose a fun bat theme and instead of hanging fabric as a backdrop, which I tend to do, I adhered these bats to the bamboo shade as if they were flying out of the table. I used 2 tablecloths which is a good tip for adding interest to a party table or creating zones (drink zone, sweets, savory…).

Another tip for setting up a party table is creating your own cake stands by using an inverted bowl with a plate on top and voila – a pedestal. I found this little bowl in the Target dollar section. Most of my plates are white so it was a fun way to add color.

If you notice above, I didn’t use all the PEEPS that were in the box for the cupcakes. These ghosts had to make an “appearance” elsewhere. I placed them on a bed of whipped topping and added a stick so the kids could help themselves!

I wanted the food to match the decor as much as possible (I know…totally type A) so I added some queso and black corn chips to the spread.

Here are the brownies that I made. I just followed the instructions on the box and once cooled, I cut them into little squares so that everyone could have a little bite.

Following with the bat theme, below is a free printable for you! I had a separate tub with drinks but I thought it would be cute to set aside a few water bottles and customize them for our party.

Click image below to print.

I removed the label from these water bottles.

I printed these thanks to my little Brother (as in the printer).

Cut them out by hand following the lines provided.

And with a small piece of tape, I adhered them to the water bottle.

Just a little Batty!

Here are the other drinks which were apple juice and water. Not that I was trying to stick with the color scheme or anything. Ok, I was 100% trying to stick with the color scheme. I’m a little batty.

The trick or treat sign was also a Target dollar section find!

I also made special treat bags for our special neighborhood friends. Those included Peeps, stickers, candy and glow sticks. Glow sticks are so inexpensive and kids love them!

So we are just a little batty over here! What are your traditions on this night? Do you get together at your home or do you go to a friend’s house?

For more fun ideas, visit the Collective Bias Hub page. Also, be sure to check out more sweet recipes at Betty Crocker. I’d love to hear about your favorite recipes for fall parties. Do you decorate on the spooky side or do you also keep it cute and silly like we do?

BBQ Corn Cakes

October 6, 2015 · by Maria · Leave a Comment

If you follow my Instagram account then you know that I love to cook! I am not a professional cook, I am a busy mom and wife who loves to sit down with my boys during dinner and hear the stories about their day. You know what I would love to make for dinner? Fresh pasta. Yup, in a perfect world I would be rolling up my sleeves mid-day and start making and cutting perfect noodles. Then I would dry the noodles and work on my sauce. It would take hours, but hey, it’s a perfect world!

Well there is nothing wrong with homemade noodles, but who has time during the weeknights for that? There are days that I have very little time for cooking. Two days a week for me are extra busy because after school and homework, my son has sports. Those days I need to crank out a good meal fairly quick without sacrificing flavor. That meal has to be flavorful, easy and fast. Oh, and kid approved! Tall order, right?

With that in mind, last week I went shopping at Walmart and I added these two items to my cart. Well, I added a ton of items but these are the two stars of today’s post: Steamfresh® Flavor Full Barbecue Sweet Corn and Farm Rich® Smokehouse Pulled Beef Brisket. I decided that I would make BBQ Corn Cakes and that I would use as an inspiration “Venezuelan cachapas”. I am not from Venezuela and this is not at all a traditional recipe, but it was the inspiration behind this idea. I hoped it would work and you will see below if it did.

Spoiler: It did.

Ingredients for the corn cake:

2 Cups of the Birds Eye Steamfresh® Flavor Full Barbecue Sweet Corn (I used the whole bag)

1/3 Cup Masa Harina (a finely ground flour found in the International section of most markets. You can probably sub it for finely ground cornmeal.)

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/4 Teaspoon of Pepper

Canola Oil for sautéing the corn cakes

Ingredients for the filling:

Mozzarella cheese (desired amount)

Farm Rich® Smokehouse Beef Brisket (desired amount)

Note: The amount of brisket in the picture was not even a quarter of what was inside the box, so the next day we used the leftovers for brisket sandwiches.

I added all the ingredients for the corn cake to a blender (a food processor would work great). I didn’t have to add any other liquid because the corn had it’s natural juices in the bag but if it is too dry for the blender to “get going”, you can add a tablespoon of milk. The consistency is meant to be like a thick pancake batter (see picture).

I was able to get 6 patties out of the mix. I heated a non-stick griddle pan but you can use a sauté pan and add a little bit of the oil. I cooked each side for about 5 minutes on medium, and was careful not to burn the corn cakes.

I then added some mozzarella cheese and allowed it to melt for a minute. I followed with the brisket and allowed it to heat through. You may want to put a lid on the pan until you see the cheese has fully melted.

I folded the corn cakes like mini tacos and served them after these pictures. My family loves it when I make them wait to eat delicious food because I am taking pictures. Smirk. It’s ok, I gained back my popularity once they tried them.

There was a little cooking involved, but once that 15 minute process was done, I was left with a full meal. Sometimes you need shortcuts that don’t taste like shortcuts! These cakes were not just flavorful, but very filling. This night it was just me and my two boys but if my husband were joining us, I would be sure to double the recipe. I sent him a picture of the food and he sent me back an angry emoji face. Hehe. Sorry babe.

Also, below is a special limited time offer for you, if you want to try this quick and easy dinner during the week or weekend. These cakes also make a great appetizer for friends!

For a limited time, earn $0.75 on Birds Eye Vegetables and unlock $1.00 off one Farm Rich® Smokehouse product with Ibotta while supplies last. If you haven’t used Ibotta, you have to download the app available on iOs and Android. Before you shop, be sure to unlock the rebates for both Birds Eye Vegetables and Farm Rich® Smokehouse. Then, shop! Buy the products that you’ve unlocked at major retailers. Finally, verify your purchase by scanning your barcodes and submitting a photo of your receipt!

“This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group®, Birds Eye®, and Farm Rich® but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #FullnRichFlavor http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV”

Autumn Around the Home

October 3, 2015 · by Maria · 32 Comments

It’s been raining here in sunny Florida quite a bit lately and I think it’s a sign of the changing season. My trees love it and my hair hates it! But inside the house it’s a different story and since we have been going out less, it’s nice to be in a cozy space to snuggle and watch movies.

A few days ago I shared my Fall Buffet.

My dining room.

And today I am sharing the adjacent room, our living room. I have to be honest and say that we rarely hang out here. It’s a nice space to have coffee or tea but not exactly where the boys prefer to relax, since they are always in our family room. However, this is the first impression room because there is no foyer in our home.

When you walk through the front door, this is what you see. I love this neutral couch because it seems to work with so many colors. I often change the pillows and throws to achieve a completely different look.

And that’s my collage wall in the background. I love it! I either like walls to be super simple or purposely busy.

The “thankful” pillow is from Target and so is the throw. I love this little pillow and the moment I saw it, I knew it was coming home with me! It is perfect for fall but I can use it year-round if I choose to.

This oval table has books on it’s second shelf, so I keep the top glass simple with this gold leaf tray and the gold-accented fruit/pumpkin.

These chairs I have considered changing ever since we bought the couch but I still can’t make up my mind whether I should change them or re-upholster them in a lighter color fabric. In the meantime, I like to add white throws and pillows to tie it in with the rest of the furniture. It’s amazing what a nice pillow or throw can do to transform a chair!

Another gold pear and little alstroemeria flowers brighten up this table. Totally unrelated, but I buy those flowers often because they are so inexpensive and last quite a while.

In between the couch and the chairs is this wall that only has this frame and key on it. Since this wall is adjacent to the busy collage wall, I wanted to keep it simple. I added the gold vase and branch as a little fall touch.

I hope you enjoyed all these fall tours of my home and I will continue to share all my holiday ideas throughout the season. For now, enjoy this beautiful time of the year and be grateful for sunshine, rain and even frizzy hair!

Guess what? It’s not over! Here are some really talented bloggers that want to share their homes with you today. I hope you are inspired this season and always!

An InLinkz Link-up